by DN Farrell
The Lost Marine
The Trellon Adventures - Book One
By
DN Farrell
www.dnfarrell.com
© 2018 and beyond Dermot Noel Farrell
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
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First Printing, 2018
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
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Day One
Chapter One – Planet Fall
Marine Landing craft Number Twenty Three– En Route to Exugenes
Chapter Two – The First Obstacle
The Planet Exugenes Landing Site Alpha
Chapter Three – Bad News
Chapter Four – The Retreat
Chapter Five – MECH Crazy!!!
Chapter Six – Extraction
Chapter Seven – Chaos in Outer Space
Day Two
Chapter Eight – Colonel Kells New Home
Chapter Nine – Housemates
Day Three
Chapter Ten – Bandits
Chapter Twelve – Bon Voyage The Planet Exocon!
Day Four
Chapter Thirteen – Brothers in Arms
Day Five
Chapter Fourteen- Uninvited Guests
Chapter Fifteen – Escape
Preview of The Artemis Trap
Prologue
The Bryant – Bridge
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About the Author
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Day One
Chapter One – Planet Fall
Marine Landing Craft Number Twenty Three– En Route to Exugenes
"Colonel I've got a bad feeling about this." Lieutenant Chapman whispered to the big broad shouldered man, who was broodingly looking out the window at the planet Exugenes.
Across the ships comms unit a voice echoed "Speed one tenth Pulse and descending, planet ETA three minutes."
Without turning to face the Lieutenant, the colonel, Colonel Henry Kell said "I don't care about your feelings Lieutenant, just keep them to yourself and whatever you do don't share them or even share a look of doubt with the men."
With that he turned, reached out with his big hand and clasped the shoulder of the Lieutenant and said "Look here Richie, I've also got the Heebie-jeebies, but there's no going back now, get the men ready we're going in."
Turning to face the men Lieutenant Richie Chapman shouted at the top of his voice, "Get your ass in gear ladies and gentlemen, this one's going to be a big one."
He paused for a second and looked around at the nervous group of one hundred space marines, many of them heading into battle for the first time, and most of them visors still open, with worried expressions on their faces.
"Visors down, everyone visors down, we're going in." He shouted.
Then in tandem the ships comms unit cut across his speech, "Speed one tenth Pulse, ETA two minutes and counting."
The marines quickly rigged up their full air recycling systems and slammed down their visors and waited and waited. The next thirty seconds would feel like thirty thousand, then suddenly the ship began to rock to and fro, as it started to bounce through the shock waves, created by the fire fight in space near the planet Exugenes. The marines were supported by two space navy ships, the Trigerius a space cruiser, named after Admiral Trigerius and a destroyer, the Virgil, named after the famous Galactic Federation victory on the planet Virgil Praxis. Today they were going to take back the planet Exugenes, which had recently been taking over by the Vis Yar rebel forces, which were the scourge of the Kolatian Quadrant.
"Boom", went a sudden loud explosion and a blast of sparks, as row C suddenly threw its ten marines up in the air, with them landing in a thud, in various rows directly behind them. Colonel kell was blown back to the floor in the explosion, while Sergeant Major McGregor shouted "We're hit, everyone keep your heads down, there might be more incoming!" He exclaimed in the panic of marines tumbling and falling and other marines running to avoid those who had been hit.
Colonel Kell pulled himself up and while he couldn't make out for sure, most of the marines, who had been blown up, were actually okay thanks to their body armor, although two of them were lying down and didn't look like they were getting up.
"Speed one twentieth Pulse, ETA one minute and thirty seconds, emergency hull filler in action, hold on everyone!" The nervous voice yelled across the ships comms unit, from the small pilot's cabin up front.
"Medics get those wounded marines to the front of the ship, use some marines to help you move them, just clear them out!" Kell yelled at the top of his voice.
The ship was now hurling violently and all of the marines were now holding onto the emergency straps above their head.
"ETA one minute and counting." The voice called out again from the pilot's cabin.
Then Lieutenant Chapman shouted at the top of his voice "Ready positions we're about to disembark!" The marines all stood up in line now waiting nervously. The ship would break through the atmosphere any second now, and once they hit dirt, the large door at the back of the ship would open rapidly and the mechanically operated seating system would more or less fling the marines out of the ship and onto the landing site.
"We're coming in fast!' Exclaimed the nervous voice from the cockpit, as the ship broke through the atmosphere of Exugenes.
Fire could be seen outside of the Landing crafts window, as the friction built up around the ship. Instantly the ship started to wobble more and more as ground fire plasma guns were creating shock waves all about them. A sudden "Rataktaktaktak" sound could be heard, as the ships on-board defence system kicked in and started firing back from four mini gun turrets, blaster cannon shots aimed at the ground plasma disruptor guns.
The ship reeled and rocked, as it tore through the atmosphere, at one hundred thousand kilometers per hour, leaving a trail of friction induced flame in its wake. The high speed been necessary, to cover the one hundred kilometer distance, from orbit to planet surface, in less than sixty seconds.
The ship suddenly decelerated rapidly, using its gravitron anti-gravity engines, to absorb most of the effects of such a rapid deceleration, but still the incumbent marines had to rely upon holding onto the emergency straps overhead, while using their biomechanical suits to hold them into place.
The ship wobbled, rattled, yawed and made squeaky grinding noises, as the pilots deftly decelerated the ship, with the aid of computers, and then levelled out... and suddenly they were there, landfall!
The ship bucked and vibrated as rebels hit it with minor blaster fire, then the rear door fell open, the launching unit engaged, throwing the marin
es in rows A and B of off the ship and onto the planet's surface, while thanks to a broken row C, those marines from rows D to J had to clamber over the seats in front of them or run down the aisle.
"Get out, get the hell out!" Exclaimed Sergeant Major McGregor, who was virtually grabbing and throwing the marines over the seats. Meanwhile Lieutenant Chapman, was quick to get of the Landing Craft, which was now under severe fire, although its automatic blasters where firing back pretty effectively.
Colonel Kell took one fleeting look at the front of the ship, where a medic was bent over two hurt marines. "Medic , medic!" he shouted hard, the medic looked up and Kell pointed for him to disembark saying "They'll get help on the Trigerius, these men need you now!" Then the two of them ran out of the ship into a blaze of blaster fire, they hardly got ten feet before they had to dive for cover and dig in behind a large sand dune.
Chapter Two – The First Obstacle
The Planet Exugenes Landing Site Alpha
Colonel Kell and the medic, where stuck behind a small hillock in the sand, as blaster cannon fire raged all around them. About twenty feet ahead of them, was Sergeant Major McGregor and another few feet ahead of him, the bulk of the marines were hiding behind a series of sand dunes, with Lieutenant Chapman shouting at them.
Kell looked around, they were facing south and directly opposite to them were a bunch of rebels who were hiding behind a wall of alloy shielding, which they had put on top of a small hill. Most of the rebels had blaster firearms and rifles, although one or two had laser rifles. The big Kahuna though was the blaster cannon, which was set between two large sheets of Induranium, an alloy which was famous for its impenetrability. The blaster rifles and firearms would bounce off the marines body armor, but the laser rifles and blaster cannon could easily slice though the them.
Kell had to think fast as McGregor was in a bad position, with practically no cover and Lieutenant Chapman and his groups of ninety or so marines, were under intense fire. Kell and the medic being late comers, had been more or less overlooked by the rebels, who were focusing all of their attention on Chapman and McGregor's locations.
"Boom, boom, boom" three anti-personnel grade hand grenades went off directly over the rebels heads, resulting in some noticeable yells and screams. Chapman's men, who had thrown the grenades, started shouting victoriously, but then again the blaster cannon kicked back in and started giving them particularly heavy fire. Most of his men were relatively safely stationed behind sand dunes, but as the blaster cannon fired off dozens of blaster shots per second, it started to drive up the sand and now and again a series of blaster shots would blast through the sand and impact the marines.
Various cries were heard over the next few seconds, as three or four marines were either wounded or killed. The blaster cannons operators, were now going at it like crazy, trying to kill of Chapman's men, before they had a chance to fire of any more anti-personnel grenades. Meanwhile Kell took his opportunity, since the area was now virtually impossible to see through, thanks to the thousands of kilograms of dirt and sand, which had been thrown up in the air by the blaster cannon.
Kell ran in a westerly direction, in an effort to circumnavigate the home made pillbox, sitting on the hill. While turning the corner, to jump over the top of the hill, there was a sudden bang and with that he hit the ground hard. Looking around him, he felt momentarily disorientated, inside his helmet the Company comms line was raging with the voice of Chapman, calling out to Central looking for aerial support, while straight up all kell could see was the bright red sky of Exugenes, then quickly making sense of his surroundings, he looked over to his left hand side and lying there, hardly moving, was Sergeant Major McGregor! Kell and McGregor had obviously had the same bright idea at the same time and due to the sand storm, even with their helmets vision enhancement, they couldn't see properly and so they ran headlong into each other at speed, knocking themselves to the ground!
Kell checked himself out and he was good, so he got up and leaned over and looked down at a smiling Sergeant Major McGregor, who was also fine, then both men noticed the cannon was still firing, so signalling non verbally, kell indicated for McGregor to give him supporting fire, while he jumped over the armor sheeting fence.
Kell jumped while McGregor stationed himself on top of the shield wall and let of some rounds of his blaster rifle, killing two rebels instantly. Now with Kell providing the cover, McGregor also rolled over the wall.
Then both men moved cautiously through the rebels homemade shelter. The rebels had put a lot of effort into setting up Induranium shielding on the top of this small hill, but little or no protection had being provided above them, thus the three anti-personal grenades had torn dozens of them to bits. As they moved closer, towards the pill box, careful to avoid rebel body parts, which were draped here and there, Kell felt a thud as a rebel with a blaster rifle took a shot at him, but the shot just bounced off his heavy chest armor, and almost instantaneously he heard a "Pew" sound as McGregor let of his blaster rifle, blown the rebels head off instantly!
But the real problem ahead was the pillbox at the top of the hill, and also there was a rebel with a laser rifle beside it, taking pot shots at the marines below, but they could hardly see him through the thick bags of sand, which were surrounding him and then the pillbox itself was fully covered in heavy sheets of Induranium, with only a small slot showing for the blaster cannon. The only way forward, was to take out the rebel with the laser rifle first, as he was a real threat, because he could easily slice through their armor, so they had to kill him and then worry about the pillbox after that.
Fortunately for them, the man-made sand storm continued, thanks to the incessant blasting by the blaster cannon operator, who appeared not to be satisfied until he had left every marine buried in the dirt. However, the laser rifle operator, who was stationed next to the pillbox, was not so happy. He was struggling to breath and had wrapped his head and face, in an effort to make breathing possible. The rebel was hidden between sheets of Induranium and a couple of sandbags in front of him, but the opening to his mini shelter was open.
Slowly Kell stationed himself behind the rebel, whose breathing was laboured and then slowly he crawled along the Induranium sheeting, until he was lying directly above the rebel, then taking his chance, he reached forward and grabbed the barrel of the laser rifle, using his biomechanical armor's strength, he pulled the weapon clean out of the rebels hands and then with the gun out of the way, McGregor, who was now lying in the sand parallel to the rebel, slid the barrel of his blaster rifle into the gap where the gun had been and firing of six shots in quick staccato "Pew,pew,pew,pew,pew,pew" he blasted the rebel to bits.
Now only the laser cannon pillbox remained and there only hope was to reach inside the small gap where the gun came out. Kell again non-verbally motioned to McGregor what to do and with that McGregor prepped an anti-personnel grenade, while Kell got ready with his laser rifle. Kell aimed and fired a two second blast at the barrel of the laser cannon, "zing" went the laser rifle slicing the six barrels of the blaster cannon into little pieces and then taking his opportunity, McGregor popped the anti-personnel grenade into the space between the weapon and the shielding.
There was a couple of seconds of panic, from the rebels inside the pillbox, as they struggled to find the grenade and throw it out, but the a dull "Boom" sound took place and with it a mild vibration was felt, even through the Induranium shielding, as the anti-personnel grenade sent thousands of pieces of alloy all over the insides of the pillbox, shredding the incumbents and chucking out a sudden puff of smoke, fire and shrapnel, though the small gun turret opening.
Chapter Three – Bad News
Kell called through on his helmet comms unit, "Lieutenant Chapman, Kell here along with McGovern, we just took out the pill box, so don't fire on us. Repeat we took the hill, get your men up here pronto."
Then Kell and McGovern took a quick look though the trenches, which the rebels had built for themselves, and as far as
they could see they were all dead or at least pretending to be dead. About one minute later, Chapman arrived on the scene and over the next five minutes his men assembled.
Kell stopped and looked back around at the men, they were definitely down a few. "McGregor check with the medics and give us a casualty report." Then looking back at the horizon, in a southerly direction, he adjusted his visor, so that it would act like a binoculars and revealed what activity was going on there and Chapman did likewise. "It all appears to be going to plan sir, I see members of the 47th and 72nd are already there." Kell nodded and then as McGovern came back, he nodded at him looking for any news.
"Four men dead sir and eight injured." He said matter of factly. Four percent dead in the first half an hour of battle, "We're off to a bad start", Kell thought to himself, but kept it to himself. He had a reputation for being tough but fair and regardless of Chapman's gut feeling, someone had to keep morale up.
Kell signalled to Lieutenant Chapman and Sergeant Major McGovern, to come over and pointing towards a small hill, a couple of kilometers over in a southerly direction, he said "We will join with Companies 21,19,47 and 72 at the assembly point over there. When we meet up we will become Battalion Aplha and then we take the mountain..." Kell forgot its' name, so he checked in with his wrist readout display and declared "Mountain XK1."